Steve's Blog
Thursday January 27, 2011

Hi everyone

The concert season is starting to heat up, and maybe that's why the weather is getting warmer, too?

We have one concert this weekend, 2 concerts and a dance next weekend, 2 more concerts the week after that. And lots of new and rather exciting shows on our website.

1. Friday January 28, The Good Lovelies plus special guest SONiA of disappear fear. St. James Hall, 3214 West 10th Avenue, 8pm

We look forward to meeting Toronto's Juno-winning trio, The Good Lovelies, tomorrow night. Funny and upbeat, with just a pinch of sass, the Good Lovelies' textbook three-part harmonies, constant instrument swapping and witty on-stage banter have enlivened the folk music landscape since they joined forces in 2006 for their first show at Toronto's funky Gladstone Hotel. They have a new CD coming out next month - maybe they'll have some advance copies. It's almost February now. You can read all about Kerri Ough, Sue Passmore and Caroline Brooks on their very informative and highly-entertaining website www.goodlovelies.com

The first set of the evening will feature the brilliant guitarist and songwriter SONiA of disappear fear. She's from Baltimore, and has played at The Rogue a couple of times. We love her music. What we also love about her is that her "other" job title could be "Peace Activist". Nice job title, when you think about it. She backs it up with classic songs like "No Bomb Is Smart" and an album - "Tango" - comprising songs translated into Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English. She works tirelessly for peace, respect, tolerance - and great music (that most powerful of truly smart weapons!) www.disppearfear.com

It's going to be another amazing night at The Rogue.

2. Radio Waves

I'll be doing a guest spot on CBC Radio One's North By Northwest on Saturday morning - at 7am - on 88.1fm and 690am. I'll be spinning tunes from Oliver Swain, Solas, and whatever we can squeeze in before the 7:30 news. Then I'm of to CiTR - and you can hear an interview with BC songwriter Mae Moore on NXNW while I'm en route. Then from 8am to noon to present The Edge On Folk on 101.9fm and www.citr.ca playing some favourites from 2010 and 2011 and looking ahead to some incredible concerts at the Rogue. Please join me for 4 (OK, 4 and a half!) hours of the best in Roots Music.

3. Future concerts on our updated website

Our Concert Calendar has a full run-down of our concerts to the end of March. Next Friday (Feb 4) we have Oliver Swain's Big Machine - the most exciting new band I've heard in BC since Outlaw Social broke up - and Oliver Swain used to be a member of that band. On Sunday Feb 6 it's the stunning Celtic quintet Solas making their first concert appearance in these parts for 5 years. Feb 11 sees the return of the hugely impressive songwriter Tom Russell with his new sideman Thad Beckman on guitar, and the next night the hottest new sounds from Scotland's trad / neo-trad scene - The Paul McKenna Band.

Then I'm off to Memphis for the Folk Alliance conference, returning just in time to catch Louisiana's Red Stick Ramblers at Capilano Performing Arts Theatre (Feb 23), and the next night some scintillatingly authentic Creole Zydeco with Jeffery Broussard and his hot band at St. James Hall. Then down to Wintergrass for a couple of days before the CD launch of Mae Moore's new album, Folklore on March 4 (with Daniel Lapp and Marc Atkinson in her band, this is going to be special!)

Some shows not yet listed on our website include California's Houston Jones (all former members of The Waybacks) on April 1st, possibly with Radim Zenkl opening. Paddy Keenan, - the Jimi Hendrix of the Irish pipes - returns on April 15th, then Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky bring their new trio - Red Horse - on April 17th, and the next night Rick Scott and Joe Mock reprise Pied Pear.

We're working on April In Paris, our annual celebration of the musical legacy of Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli. This year's event takes place April 29th to May 1st, and it promises to be the most exciting and eclectic one yet!

4. More concerts this weekend

Corky Seagal's Chamber Blues are at CPAT on Friday, but we won't be able to hold a raffle and stage a membership table cos we're otherwise engaged at St. James Hall. This Saturday you might like to check out Vermont singer Grace Potter and her band The Nocturnals at The Venue on Granville Street. She delivers gutsy roots, rock and r&b with more than a hint of Janis Joplin about her. On Sunday evening Indo-Canadian songbird Kiran Ahluwalia plays the QE Playhouse, with special guests from Rajasthan. And on Monday, local bluegrass combo Viper Central play at the Anza Club.

5. Rogue Folk Review

The next issue will be assembled over the weekend and the mailing party is on Tuesday. You should receive it in the mail before next Friday - and it will be available for download on our website on Monday. We are still migrating our membership database onto the new ticket server, so there may be one or two glitches to iron out. Please let us know if you receive duplicate copies - or no copies - or if you have elected to download it but have received it in the mail instead.

6. Membership Drive

One of the consequences of changing from snail mail to downloads is that it's harder to keep you informed of your membership status. We like to issue gentle reminders every now and again. The benefits of membership are many; mostly discounts on our concerts, but also on concerts at CPAT and on tickets to the Vancouver and Mission Folk Festivals in July. Members can also purchase our Ticket Bundles - a fabulous discount on 10 Rogue shows (or 20, or even 30 if you want to save even more money!)

We really appreciate your support, and in these dark days of funding cutbacks we need your membership contributions - and attendance at our concerts - in order to survive.

See you at The Rogue!
Steve